Rev. Robert Barron is an associate professor of systematic theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. His other recent books include Heaven in Stone and Glass, which addresses the spirituality of the Gothic cathedral, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, and And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation. Barron has published numerous books and articles, and is highly sought after as a speaker throughout the United States.

• Part 2 Preface: Cultivators of a Flourishing Garden of LifePart 3 Building a Bridge Across the Great DivideChapter 4 The Virtue of Bi-Polar ExtremismChapter 5 The Trouble with a Beige CatholicismChapter 6 Paths and Practices: Recovering an Embodied ChristianityPart 7 LiturgyChapter 8 Lex Orandi, Lex Vivendi: The Liturgy as a Source for the Moral LifeChapter 9 The Trouble With Beige Churches: A Critique of the Influence of Cartesian Modernity on ContemporaryChapter 9 The Liturgical Act and the Church of the Twenty-first CenturyPart 11 At the Feet of the MastersChapter 12 Thomas Aquinas's Christological Reading of God and the CreatureChapter 12 The Christian Humanism of Karol Wojtyla and Thomas AquinasChapter 13 God as ArtistChapter 14 Genesis and Joyce: Narratives of Sin, Grace and Theonomy: An Essay in Honor of Andrew Greeley on His Seventieth BirthdayPart 16 Preaching the MessageChapter 17 "I'm Waiting; I'm Waiting": An Advent MeditationChapter 18 The Grandfather and the Voice from the Whirlwind: A Meditation on Preaching the Problem of SufferingChapter 18 Three Paths of HolinessChapter 20 A Sermon for Children of the SeventiesPart 21 The Way of NonviolenceChapter 22 Thomas Merton's Metaphysics of PeaceChapter 23 Creation, Transsubstantiation and the Grain of the Universe: A Contribution to Stanley Hauerwas's Ekklesia ProjectChapter 24 "Comes a Warrior": A Christmas MeditationPart 25 Priesthood and MinistryChapter 26 Priest as Bearer of the MysteryChapter 27 Priest as Doctor of the SoulChapter 28 Mystagogues, World-Transformers and Interpreters of Tongues: A Reflection on Collaborative Ministry in the ChurchChapter 30 Evangelizing the American Culture

These essays afford an opportunity of moving, in the company of Father Robert Barron, away from some of the polarizations that have left much modern theological writing in a cul-de-sac. The reader will judge how successful he has been in avoiding both a stuffy traditionalism and a liberalism without content; but the discussion is everywhere stimulating, the product of a fertile and cultivated theological mind.